It's actually gotten worse. New Jersey is on pace to lose 3,000 people this year, a record-breaking number. And this would be the fourth consecutive year of shattering the annual record, according to state data.

Former Gov. Jim McGreevey, the New Jersey Reentry Corporation he leads and national drug treatment experts on Tuesday delivered a report at the Statehouse offering a blueprint they say has helped other states halt the rising death toll.

The problem is how we provide treatment, according to the report, "A Modern Plague." The standard 28-day detox model followed by three months of outpatient treatment isn't long or seamless enough. Each time a person addicted to heroin, fentanyl or other prescription drugs moves to a new phase of recovery, most relapse.

Re-admissions now account for nearly 90 percent of all patients enrolled in treatment programs, the report said.

Families typically can't navigate the bureaucratic system to help steer their loved ones back, McGreevey said in an interview before the report's release.

"When families are at their most fragile, that is not the time they can investigate a network" for treatment. "It ought to be established for them," McGreevey said.

"We can't ask families to navigate themselves through hell."

The report points to Vermont's six-year-old strategy of creating a publicly managed system that names a treatment facility to guide the patient through the recovery process, which according to the U.S. Surgeon General should last 12 months.

That treatment regime must offer every available tool -- intensive outpatient counseling, recovery coaches, help dealing housing and law enforcement issues, and access to medication assisted treatment, a scientifically proven method of preventing relapses.

"MAT," or medication assistance treatment, can "mimic the effects of opioids" or "block the high resulting from opioid abuse," the report said. "Heroin overdose deaths decreased by 37 percent after buprenorphine became available in Baltimore," according to the report.

Yet only one-quarter of all treatment providers in the state offer medication assistant treatment, the report said.

And half of all providers offer mentoring program, 60 percent refer patients to social services; 40 percent offer employment counseling or training and 45 percent offer housing assistance, according to the report.

The report calls for creating a new statewide standard of care and a treatment program in every county. The Reentry Corporation would create a model program to demonstrate how it would work.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, said he agrees with the report and is drafting legislation he will introduce within the next 30 days to make the model available here.

The Murphy administration is "committed to the idea as well," Vitale said, and he will work the governor's staff to craft a bill Murphy would sign. "They agree, understand and fully support (we need) a much better system of care."

Vitale said he expects some physicians and other medical providers may object to the reliance on medication-assisted treatment, because they may see it swapping one drug for another.

"That's ridiculous and it has to stop," Vitale said. "All of the recommendations in the report and in the bill will be guided by the evidence."

"The long-term strategy is to be in recovery and not be a drain to the system. Making sure people are in recovery for a long period of time will exponentially increases their chances at recovery," Vitale added.

"This report is the best thing I have seen in four years," said Vitale, who collaborated with Gov. Chris Christie in passing laws addressing the opioid crisis. "This is a cohesive plan, and we are going to get working on this soon."

More than 9,500 people in New Jersey have died from drug overdoses from January 2014 to June 2018, according to the report.

The problem has been exacerbated by the spread about two years ago of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more addictive than heroin. Last year, fentanyl claimed 1,379 lives, surpassing for heroin for the first time, with 1,132 deaths, according to data state Attorney General Gubir Grewal released Tuesday.

The Reentry Corporation, a social service agency that works with people starting a new life after leaving prison, consulted with a plethora of heavy-hitters in the addictions field to develop the recommendations and enlist their support.

Douglas Marlowe, chief of Science, Law, and Policy for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, endorsed the report's recommendations.

"Third party payers, whether public or private, typically approve only brief 28- or 30-day treatment regimens, when research clearly shows that 90 days is a minimum threshold for achieving therapeutic benefits from treatment and 6 to 12 months is often required for lasting recovery," Marlowe said in a written statement.

"Treatment agencies have largely oriented their programs around this ill-advised funding structure, leading to costly revolving-door treatment admissions."

"I strongly endorse the treatment- and prevention-focused recommendations in your report, which if implemented I believe would make major contributions to public health and public safety," Marlowe wrote.

McGreevey also invited Kathleen Foster and other founders of Parent to Parent, a support network of families with firsthand experience of the opioid epidemic.

Foster said her son, Christian, died from an overdose at age 27, waiting for a vacancy in a treatment program. He had gone through two 28-day and one 21-day detox program but it wasn't enough.

A long-term regime of treatment is "crucial," she said. "We can no longer afford to lose more to this plague."

New Jersey operates a 24-hour helpline, 1.844.ReachNJ (1.844.732.2465) that will connect you with organizations that provide substance abuse services and assistance to families.